Atos and Materialise NV have presented a revolutionary titanium insert for spacecraft structures. The product was revealed last Friday at the European Conference on Spacecraft Structures, Materials and Environmental Testing, ECSSMET 2016.
Marta García-Cosío, Head of mechanical engineering at Atos Spain, says: “We are proud with this innovation. By creating this complex product in metal additive manufacturing in such a short time, Atos and Materialise are amongst the top of providers of Metal 3D Printing solutions. The weight reduction will allow the increase of useful equipment to be used in satellites and result in considerable cost saving in each launch.”
The engineers faced the challenge to improve by far traditional concepts. The design was addressed to cover all space requirements, from conception phase to manufacturing. The insert was manufactured by Metal 3D Printing in titanium, in a process also known as Selective Laser Melting (SLM). Two inserts were manufactured at the Materialise Metal 3D Printing Factory in Bremen, Germany.
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